The global tuna industry is at a crossroads with whole fleets of longliners around the world possibly never going fishing again.
Tuna industry players attending a research conference in Port Lincoln this week heard falling tuna prices and a massive increase in fuel costs associated with operating a large, well-crewed long-lining ship were making that style of fishery increasingly uneconomical.
There was also speculation that long-liners were only keeping the larger more valuable fish and discarding smaller specimens as by-catch.
Industry spokesman Brian Jeffriess said the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) in Korea last week heard the future of long lining was dim. “We are used to seeing trends but this looks like it is a more long-term change that is here to stay, a kind of global restructuring,†he said. “And it is affecting fleets in oceans around the world.â€
Long-liners set lines with thousands of baited hooks that lure and capture passing tuna, whereas local fishers use a purse-seine net to capture whole schools.
Mr. Jeffriess said tuna industry observers were also beginning to question the catch statistics from long-liners, which had an unexplained absence of smaller fish being caught.
This was contrary to what local fishers and others were experiencing with evidence of smaller fish around, so one explanation was that the long-liners were only keeping the larger more valuable fish and discarding smaller specimens as by-catch.
Australian long-liners were required to record by-catch but other fisheries around the world were less well regulated, he said.
And the demise of long-liners would actually make it harder to determine the status of world stocks as it was the catch records from these vessels that fishery managers used to base their policy.
Mr. Jeffriess said the formal ruling of the CCSBT on the status of the stock was yet to be released but he did not expect any changes for the Australian quota of 5265 tons. “The classification of stock ranges from 'cautiously optimistic' to ‘increasing uncertainty,†he said.
While global tuna fishing was one subject discussed during the regular conference, the bulk of discussion centered on improving the local tuna farming operations.
The four main areas of research conducted under the tuna sub program of the Aquafin Cooperative Research Center (CRC) are nutrition, environment, value adding and health.
Among those attending was the newest member of the steering committee David Warland of the Sekol company who said research was the key to improving the quality of locally produced tuna. “I see it as a way of ensuring we are recognized as leading the world in research and producing the best tuna in the world,†Mr. Warland said.
Source: Australian Press